I think that initially, the French ‘right’ was a pro monarchy and pro-Catholic element. They were, if I understand it correctly, a sort of last gasp of traditional French thinking. They never consolidated their social or political position and never gained ascendancy.
Neither of those elements were, or ever became, strong in France... the power vacuum was filled by French pro Nazi types. Whatever Conservatism’s final posture was in France, it was appropriated by Fascists. So the French (and lots of others, worldwide) made, and continue to mistakenly make, a direct association between the traditional right in France and the Fascists who replaced and subverted that group.
The association, no matter how loose, has kept French Conservatism in a very bad light and always lends Socialism/Communism an attraction for young people.... because they think they are being ultra modern. In fact they were and are working with Socialists/Communists in the destruction of France and the French national character.
They are past the point of no return.
Origin of political terms left and right...
http://factmyth.com/the-origin-of-the-political-terms-left-and-right/
“”Whatever Conservatism’s final posture was in France, it was appropriated by Fascists.”
I see your point about how the perception of, and control over, the political right in France has shifted. More broadly, the political “right” and “left” have a different character in different countries, and at different times. In the USA, for example, the “right” has no monarchist affections.
But I would propose that French Conservatism has no “final” posture. Indeed, the FN (for example) seems to me to have evolved decisively away from the early fascism and anti-semitism of Jean Marie Le Pen, to the more nationalistic isolationism of Marine Le Pen, and perhaps may be headed to a more recognizable affinity to American conservatism in the future under Marion Maréchal.
The ebb and flow and evolution never ends.
Actually, the French fascists were almost universally Socialist. And then almost all of the Vichy government joined the Socialists after WWII.
You’re probably thinking of the German “right.” The Christian Democrats/Catholic Social Union were tricked into voting for the act which gave emergency powers to Hitler, in a scene straight out of The Revenge of the Sith. They understood that they had huge concessions from the National Socialists, but they didn’t read the bill before they voted on it. The concessions had been unilaterally stripped.
After WWII, however, it was the Free Democratic Party which ended up attracting the most Nazis. The FDP is like Northeastern Republicans: socially liberal, environmentalist, economic policies which favor the wealthy inaccurately marketed as being “fiscally conservative.”